USA Dot Com is a blog covering politics and government from a conservative Christian perspective. Verne Strickland is a 50-year veteran of investigative journalism. This blog offers a take-no-prisoners style with a modicum of biting satire. Verne and his wife of 55 years, Durrene, live in Wilmington, NC.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Defying Obama, House passes bundle of bills to boost coal. Stoke it up!

The House took a parting shot at what critics say are the Obama administration’s policies to discourage coal production Friday by passing a package of bills designed to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to impose regulations on the struggling industry.

In
its last vote of the session, the House voted 233-175 to approve a
bundle of five bills, known as the “Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012,”
that would block recent EPA efforts to regulate emissions, require the agency to consider the cost and economic impact of certain rules, and give states greater authority over pollution control.

“President
Obama has spent his entire term waging a regulatory war of red tape
and government mandates on coal miners, coal jobs and the millions of
people who rely on low-cost coal-fired electricity,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chair Doc Hastings, Washington state Republican, after the vote.

The legislation is unlikely to reach the Senate
this year, and even if it did, President Obama has indicated that he
would veto it. But the House passage highlights the election-year
tension between the Obama administration and the nation’s coal-mining states, several of which are also key battleground states.

Those
include Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all
of which are home to coal companies grappling with the EPA’s recent first-ever rule on mercury emissions and its proposed carbon-emissions standards for new coal-fueled plants.

The heightened regulatory climate, coupled with falling natural gas prices, prompted Alpha Natural Resources
to announce this week that it would shutter eight coal plants and lay
off 1,200 workers in Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

An
industry analysis released Tuesday forecast the closure of 204
coal-based units in 25 states in the next three to five years,
resulting in job losses and higher electricity prices.

“Without
the passage of the Stop the War on Coal Act, those job losses and
thousands of others will become reality for hardworking coal miners and
their families across the country as a record number of coal plants
will be forced to close over the coming years,” said Mr. Hastings.

Nineteen
Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans in approving the
legislation, while 13 Republicans voted against it. The Democrats
voting in favor included Rep. Shelley Berkley, who’s locked in a tight
contest for the open Nevada Senate seat, and Rep. Mark Critz of
Pennsylvania, a vulnerable first-termer whose GOP opponent Keith
Rothfus has made EPA regulations a centerpiece of his campaign.

Rep.
Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, called the legislation a
“polluterpalooza bill” that fails to “recognize the fundamental shift
in the energy marketplace.”

“Republicans have been so busy
manufacturing fake wars on coal and oil that they’ve missed the real
American energy revolution in natural gas, wind, solar and other
cleaner, cheaper forms of energy,” said Mr. Markey, the ranking
Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

The
Sierra Club called the legislation “a set of reckless and radical
bills that would endanger millions of Americans across the country.”

A
poll conducted for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy and
released Thursday showed 59 percent of those surveyed in Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Virginia support coal-based energy. The poll, which
oversampled Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, also found
that most “agree that EPA is making decisions based on politics, not policy.”

“Today’s
vote was an important signal to voters about which members of Congress
are fighting to protect coal and the jobs it provides,” said Mr.
Duncan. “It is disappointing that President Obama threatened to veto
this critical legislation which would provide for more balanced
regulations and ensure a future for coal.”